


Tackling Issues

by mademoisellePlume



Series: Nega House [1]
Category: Animorphs - Katherine A. Applegate
Genre: AU, Cuddle House Nightmares, F/M, Post-War
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-17
Updated: 2013-09-17
Packaged: 2017-12-26 21:37:17
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,109
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/970551
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mademoisellePlume/pseuds/mademoisellePlume
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rachel works through some aggression issues. The solution is quite temporary, though Marco is willing to help out in order to get what he wants.<br/>This Series will become poly, and is a darker take on the concepts found in Cuddle House.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Tackling Issues

**Author's Note:**

> You're welcome, Demmy, happy birthday. I'm sorry, Neinlives

The office was gorgeous, lush leather seats, dark mahogany desk, files neatly organized, books on shelves, a laptop folded and left on the side of the desk. Dr. Florence sat on the other side of the desk, her chin on her hands, and a slight smile gracing her wrinkled face. Her suit had shoulder pads, and really, what more did Rachel have to know about her to come to an instant conclusion?

Clearly this was an old fashioned biddy that wasn't interested in more then having a famous Animorph as a client, for all that she'd been one of her mother's work acquaintances.

Whatever. Rachel wasn't thrilled about being here anyways.

"Aren't you supposed to have like, inkblots?" She asked rudely, slouching in her chair and glancing at the window. No birds on the branches. No watching friends.

Hah. Well, that term might be in debate at the moment.

"Would that make you feel better?" The lady said in this tone that made Rachel's knuckles itch.

"Look, I don't particularily want to be here." Rachel said, sharper then she intended. "There's nothing you have to offer me."

Dr. Florence tutted softly and Rachel closed her eyes for just a second, feeling claws where her nails where. "Rachel. You've been through a lot of trauma. You need to-"

In a moment, Rachel was on her feet, her hands planted on the desk, her eyes wide open and glaring at the woman. "What do you know of what I need? Where have you been these last three years? Sitting in your pretty little office?"

"You can't just assume that I-" The doctor said, voice a little shrill.

Rachel shoved the laptop and some papers off the desk. The crash on the floor was satisfying. "That what? You weren't a Controller? I still don't care!" Despite her fierce and sudden anger, Rachel was having fun. She wasn't looking over her shoulder, she wasn't tired and achy, for these few moments that anger coursed through her veins at this doctor that dared tell Rachel what she 'needed.'

"It's not the same! You can at least make excuses for yourself! Or that you didn't know a Controller? Or get scared at the end? I was scared for three years! I fought!" Rachel decided more things needed to be shoved off the desk, so she made sure it was barren.

"Rachel, sit down and we will talk about-"

Laughter interrupted the woman this time. "There's only one person I listen to, and the last time I did that, I almost died! I survived the suicide mission he sent me on." She grinned so hard it hurt. "This is done. I don't need some sanctimonious bitch telling me what I need."

Rachel shoved the chair over and started for the door. "You'd still listen to him?" Came from behind her, making her back ramrod straight with sudden tension.

She stopped, turned around, and walked slowly back to the psychiatrist. "I have done so many things for that boy, there's nothing left to refuse. What can he tell me to do that I haven't already done? I have killed. I would have died. I have shed the blood of family, and I have shed the blood of strangers. I am a warrior. I am a monster!" Her hands smacked the desk loudly and she leaned onto them.

"I'm a monster, and he holds my leash. I'm the creature the yeerks should fear most, the one that attacks first with with the most joy, and he tells me where to strike. I'm not the one who got to keep her morals. I'm not the one who can see a beautiful logical line. I'm not the one with instincts to hide in." She leaned forwards, baring teeth that were longer and sharper then they were before.

"And who is he?" Dr. Florence asked, folding her hands over her stomach to hide how they shook.

"Jake? Well that's obvious." Rachel straightened and walked away, throwing her parting line over her shoulder flippantly. "The one that holds the monster's leash is just as much a monster as her."

The door slammed shut.

<Fifteen minutes, Xena. At this rate you might actually finish a therapy lesson yet.> She heard the familiar voice as she ignored whatever the receptionist was saying when she left.

"Marco. Where are you, you little creep?" Her hand shaded her eyes and she scanned the horizon. And, sure enough, a seagull sat on top of a streetlight.

<I didn't hear you, but I sure see you. So, feel sane yet?> He could damn well see the finger she flipped in his direction as she walked away. First intereaction with one of the others in a week. Heart warming.

She heard the wings fluttering, on the very edge of her hearing.

Of course, he wanted to make a nuisance of himself. Well, she didn't give him the courtesy of paying him any attention, storming her way back to the hotel where she and her family was staying. It was pointedly not the same one as Jake and his family were being housed in.

Cassie and Marco's family was being housed there. Loren had been offered quarters there, but she was here instead. Ax was in special quarters on a landed Andalite ship. They were far apart from one another.

It had been a month.

It had been a month since she spat Tom's head onto the ground.

She pulled open a pack of gum, popped out a piece, and threw it into her mouth. Feeling like there was ...something in her mouth to chew was best solved by having something really in her jaws.

<Xena, c'mon, lets have a chat.>

Rachel refused to even slowly down, going into the hotel, taking the stairs to hit each step with her feet as hard as she could, and vent a little aggression before coming into contact with her family again. She had her own bedroom but it connected with the rooms they shared, and that was too much interaction with them for her.

She couldn't pretend anymore.

She couldn't be the big sister and daughter they remembered. Her Mom hated it. Jordan hated her. Sara was confused and sad and it made Rachel ache.

The door to her bedroom slammed shut, she locked the interconnecting door, and almot screamed as a seagull pecked at her window.

<Rachel.> Peck. Peck. <Rachel.> Peck. Peck. <Rachel.> Peck. Pe- she wrenched the window open.

"What." She snarled.

<So, Jake's worried about you.> The seagull flew in and settled on her bed - rather smugly, she thought, and she closed the windows and the curtains, aware that she'd already been photographed while doing casual things in this room.

"What, worried I'm going to freak out in public?" She sneered.

<Again? A little. More worried if you're doing okay.> Marco was demorphing now, human flesh erupting from speckled white feathers.

Rachel shoved him off of her bed and fell back on it, crossing her arms behind her head. "I'm fine. You can leave now, stop demorphing."

"But Rachel," he protested once his mouth and throat were formed. "I know you want to see my hot body in biking shorts."

She groaned and rolled her eyes as he struck a pose. "I've seen enough of that for a lifetime, thank you."

Shrugging, he dropped down onto the bed with her, draping himself over her legs. "Whatever you say, Xena."

"Was that it? Just checking up on me for Jake?" She sneered, narrowing her eyes at him a little bit.

He chuckled. "Well, more like recruiting you to help me kick his ass into gear. I can't keep running interference between him and the press, you know." His fingers found the hem of her skirt and played with it, not lifting it up but simply twisting the fabric a little bit, feeling the softness on his skin, and keeping his hands occupied. She ignored it.

"He's asking me for help? To make him start being a guilt-ridden lump? He can forget it!" Rachel snapped, glaring at him.

Marco rolled his eyes. "No, I'm asking you for help. Damn it Rachel, everyone's falling apart and-"

"So? We were a group for one reason, Marco, and it wasn't because we were all friends." She shrugged, callously shrugging off any problems that were arising.

His reaction was to scowl and say, "So the Yeerks are beaten. Is the war really over?" She snorted and he smacked her knee lightly. "Seriously. At some point it was more then just a war for Earth. It was for our families, our sanity, to do what was needed."

"Wow, I don't remember agreeing to fight to keep you sane, ass." She sneered, then paused, and her face twisted in a facsimile of sympathy. "Are your parents...?"

Marco sat up and glared. "Rachel, back the fuck off. They're fine, and it's none of your business."

She smirked the tiniest bit, an expression that spoke volumes. "I bet."

"Rachel-" He growled and she laughed.

"What, like I haven't lived through a divorce? Truly, the worst of all fates, I can tell you. A pain unlike any other! Of course, getting repeatedly maimed hurts a bit more but hey, you can't morph away a divorce!"

"I swear to god-" His fists were clenched and she sat up properly, leaning towards him. "Rachel, shut the fuck up, I'm here to see if you're okay and get Jake some help other then just me, that's it."

"Just trying to help, Marco." She said sweetly and he tackled her. Her wild laughing filled his ears as they rolled off the bed, struggling, and he was sick of it.

He shut her up with a kiss, and was promptly rolled over so she was straddling him. She pulled back. "Like you can handle me." She whispered, eyes far too bright.

"Tobias-"

She glared. "Neither me or Loren has seen him for a week. He didn't say goodbye either. And Marco?" She leaned down so her lips were next to his ear, "if I hear you question what someone else might think of what I choose to do with my body again, as if their feelings matter more then mine? I'll disembowel you in whatever shape you're in. And you know I will."

He shuddered, the remembered pain of semi-regular organ spillage an echo on his abdomen. "You're totally out of control." He told her, the cold hard truth as clear to him as ever.

She regarded him oddly. "Of course I am. Do you want to fuck or not?"

"Do I want to sleep with the gorgeous warrior who just threatened to disembowel me? Let's think." He drawled sarcastically.

She smirked. "If you wanna leave, just say the word and I'll shove you back out the window." She promised, moving back and moving against the lump in his bike shorts at the same time. He groaned.

"Xena, get your fucking panties off."

"Why don't you take them off?" She whispered, claiming his mouth with hers again. His hands were under her skirt in a second, cupping her ass and feeling her. then he jerked her forwards, pulling her up him and putting her off balance. "Woah- Marco, you ass!" She snapped, stopping when he settled her down over his face and pressed his tongue against her through the material.

"No, Rach, your ass, right here. And may I say, it feels as delightful as it's always looked." He said smugly, pulling his face back a bit.

"Put your mouth to good use for once in your sorry life!" She said, just a hint of a catch in her voice as she reached down and moved her underwear aside, and made the most ungraceful, gratified noise as he did just as she demanded. He might not have been experienced, but what he lacked in experience and technique he made up for in enthusiasm and a little bit of smugness at each noise he drew from her.

When she cried out loudly and slumped backwards, he grabbed her and moved her so she could lean against the bed, sitting up and wiping his mouth, grinning and licking his lips like a cat who'd gotten into the cream.

"So you'll think about helping me out with Jake?"

"Sit and spin, Marco." She said, without any of the vitriol of before, the vicious energy she had now somewhat drained off.

"Maybe if you're real good." He grinned and reached out to make sure her skirt was arranged nicely around her knees before getting to his feet, opening up the curtains and window and beginning to morph once more. 


End file.
